Grief
by ashes and cinders
Summary: Bad news arrives in Konoha, but all may not be as it appears.


**AN: My first Naruto fic! Sauske May be a little OOC, but that is because of the situation. (Note: I have not reached his return in the anime yet, so no flames!) I do not own Naruto! (Squad 7 is 17 in this!)**

One of the jonin from the aviary ran as quickly as possible down the hall towards the Hokage's office. He had an urgent message from the field, one that he knew Lady Tsunade was not going to like.

He knocked on the door and waited until he heard the shout of "Enter!" to open the door.

The ninja felt the blood drain from his face when he saw the two other ninja standing in her office. Naruto Uzumaki and Kakashi HatKe.

"Well, what is it?!" The sanin asked impatiently.

The man fumbled in in his vest for the note, eyes darting from the Hokage to the other male ninja, to his best and back again. Finally finding the message, he handed the scroll to her.

"Word from the field, my lady," he said while bowing.

The woman opened the scroll, read the message, looked up to the jonin, looked back to the message and then closed her eyes.

When she opened her eyes again and looked up at the Messenger it was easy to see that her eyes had gone dim. In one moment she appeared to have aged 10 years.

"When?"

"It just arrived, my lady."

"You're dismissed."

The ninja bowed again and quickly left the room.

"Naruto!"

The boy in question gave her his attention.

"Go to the Uchiha manor and retrieve Sauske."

"Huh? Why do we need that-" he began to argue.

"NOW!" Her tone left no room for argument. The young man quickly scurried out of the room, fearing her wrath.

Kakashi decided to speak up then. "Might I ask why Sauske is being called in? The mission must be urgent if you are willing to call him in."

Tsunade sighed, "I'm afraid this is more than urgent and your team needs to hear it first."

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow in question. Tsunade just looked at him and sighed.

' _This does not sound good,'_ Kakashi thought. Just as he was going to ask what the problem was, Naruto came barging in with Sauske on his tail.

"So what's the mission granny? Oh come on it's got to be good!"

"Naruto" Kakashi tried to quiet him.

"Well come on! It's gotta be big for you to call Sauske in with us! It's an S-rank isn't it? Please let it be an S-rank!"

"Naruto!" The teen suddenly quieted at his sensei's tone!

Tsunade only winced. "I'm afraid it's not that... the three of you needed to hear this before word gets out." Tsunade sighed again and felt her heart break at her next words.

"We have just received word from the field... Sakura Haruno is dead..."

The silence was so thick in the room you couldn't cut it with a kunai.

Kakashi's visible eye stared at the floor, wishing it would swallow him. Sauske remained stone faced, and Naruto looked stricken.

"WHAT?! No! That can't be possible! It was supposed to be a B-Rank mission! No chance of combat!" Naruto yelled when he got over his shock.

" I know that Naruto, and believe me I will be asking for specifics when Sai returns," Tsunade sighed. "Sakura was the village's best medic nin, she and Sai were only sent to assist our clients, there was never supposed to be fighting, otherwise I would have sent more back up."

Tsunade heaved a heavy sigh and wore a pained look, "I wanted to inform you three first, seeing as you are her teammates. I didn't want you to hear the news from someone else. It's only a matter of time before word gets out that she's gone. Shizune and I will begin making arrangements immediately, the funeral will be held when Sai returns in three days. Sakura was highly respected in Konoha, we will give her a proper send off."

When Tsunade looked up she saw she was only speaking with two of the team's members, Sauske had stormed out the door.

XXX

The last few days passes solemnly as word of Sakura Haruno's death traveled through the village. Rookie 9 and Team Gai took the news especially hard.

But no one more so than Sauske. In the two days since Team Kakashi has received the news, no one had seen him. Naruto has spent hours banging on his door, but received no answer. Even Kakashi had tried to speak with him and had gotten a cold shoulder (or closed door as the case may be).

XXX

Two ninja in their twenties sat at the check in station at the entry gate to Konoha when they saw two figures approach, a male and a female. At the sight of the female, the guards' jaws dropped to the ground.

"Stop!"

Both looked confused.

"Woman, identify yourself!"

Now they both looked very confused.

"Sakura Haruno."

"Password?"

"The cherry blossoms bloom in spring."

The second man looked at his clipboard, looked up at the first and nodded.

"Go and notify the Hokage!" The first ordered the second.

"What is going on?" Sakura really wanted some answers. Before the guard could answer, Sakura was engulfed in a bone crushing hug.

"SAKURA!"

"What the hell?! Get off me Naruto!"

"Sakura! I'm so glad you're okay!" Naruto began crying loudly and squeezing tighter.

"What are you talking about? Of course I'm okay, I was only gone a couple of days! Now will you LET GO OF ME?!" Sakura yelled trying to pry him off. The fox boy only held tighter and began sobbing.

"WE- WE THOUGHT WE LOST YOU!" He bawled.

"NARUTO! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" Sakura was beginning to get irritated.

"Naruto! Let the poor girl breathe!" Came the commanding voice of the Hokage.

"Milady! We were just about to come and make our report." Sakura bowed whe Naruto finally released her.

"I can't say how glad I am to see you alive and well Sakura," Tsunade smiles at her prodigy.

"Huh? Naruto said something like that, too! What is going on?!"

"Why don't we head to my office before we attract a crowd?" Tsunade suggested before turning and heading to The Hokage Tower.

XXX

"Sai, would you go retrieve Kakashi? Just bring him here quickly, tell him it's urgent and don't give him any details on your mission." Sai nodded and left to retrieve Kakashi-sensei.

"Naruto, I want you to go get Sasuke while I fill Sakura in on the situation."

Naruto nodded and hurried off without an argument.

"Milady, what is going on?" Sakura asked, frustrated that everyone but her seemed to know.

"Well Sakura, I must say... you're looking good for a woman who is supposed to be dead."

XXX

45 minuets later Kakashi and Sai were standing in the Hokage's office. Naruto and Sauske still hadn't shown up.

"We'll wait a few more minutes, if they're not here soon, I'll brief you without them." Tsunade said, tapping her fingers on her desk.

Five minutes later Naruto came barging through the door... alone.

"Naruto! Where is Sauske?!" She pounded her fist on her desk.

"Easy Grandma! I tried to get him! I pounded and pounded on the door and he wouldn't answer!" He paused for a moment and then added, "I'm starting to get worried, he hasn't left the mansion since..."

"Since we got word Sakura was dead," Kakashi finished for him.

Sai's eyes bulged from his head. "I have a feeling I missed something."

"You remember the fire at the village we were helping? Apparently there was some confusion in all the chaos and they reported back to Lady Tsunade that I had been killed," Sakura filled him in.

"Sakura... he's been taking it really had since we got the news. Grandma Tsunade didn't even get to finish filling us in and he had stormed from the room," Naruto said downcast.

"Naruto has spent the majority of the last two days trying to get him to come out of the house, I even tried, but neither of us had any luck," Kakashi added.

"I need to talk to him! I need to tell him what happened!" Sakura said worriedly.

"We should go with you, I'm sure realizing you are still with us will be quite a shock," Tsunade suggested.

XXX

The group stood on the front doors waiting for a response and listening to Naruto bang on the large wooden doors, after 5 months he finally shouted out:

"SASUKE! IF YOU DON'T OPEN THE DOOR I'M GONNA KNOCK IT DOWN!"

"Naruto, shush!" Sakura tried to quiet him; all the yelling was giving her a migraine. "I know where the spare key is!"

"Huh? How doh know that? And... WHY DIDN'T HE TELL ME?!"

"First thing, I only found out because I was the one seeing to his medical needs when he got home. And second... he didn't tell you because he didn't want you to quote 'barge in and annoy him'."

"HEY!"

Kakashi grinned behind his mask while Sai and Tsunade had to cover their mouths to contain their giggles.

Sakura pulled the spare key out from a fake rock under a bush and made her way towards the door. As soon as the click of the lock was heard, Naruto rushed the door and pushed past Sakura to get inside.

"SAS-oh..."

The rest of the group calmly followed in behind him, with Sakura coming in last and standing behind so as no to shock Sasuke.

What they saw startled them all: Sauske sitting in the middle of the floor staring off into space, he looked like he hadn't slept or even moved in two days.

Naruto was the first to gain his voice. "Sasuke..." Naruto finally managed to be quiet.

"She's gone..." Sasuke rasped out, not even noticing Naruto or any of the others in his house. "Sakura..."

Naruto crouched in front of him and repeated himself, "Sasuke!"

His friend finally looked at him with dead eyes.

"Sakura..."

"Sasuke, she's- "

"Gone... I never told her... I never said..." His shoulders slumped, he was a broken man. "My cherry blossom..." His shoulders began to shake with sobs he tried to contain. "I pushed her away... now she's gone..."

Sakura could take no more. She had heard and seen enough, she could take anymore of his misery. She pushed through their group of friends to stand at the front. "Sasuke..."

He looked to her and then clenched his eyes shut. His mind was playing tricks on him now. His shook his head trying to shake the illusion loose.

Sakura could tell his thought process as clearly as if he had said it. She moved to crouch in front of him and pushed Naruto to the side.

"Sasuke."

He clenched his eyes tighter. She put her hands on either side of his face and whispered his name again. Finally, he opened disbelieving eyes.

"Sakura?" He croaked her name out.

"Yeah."

"How?"

"A false report was sent, I'm sorry..."

He lurched forward and gripped her in the tightest hug of her life. "I'm not," he whispered in her ear. He pulled back to look at her face and then leaned in to kiss her.

The pair only broke apart when Naruto's and Sai's catcalls and wolf whistles became too annoying.

XXX

By the next day word had gone through the village that Sakura was not dead and her funeral quickly turned into a party.

The entire Konoha 12 and their senses showed up along with some of their families. There was an abundance of drinking and dancing, including a drunken Lee (the guys spiked his drink) trying to do the worm while Gai boasted his student's youthfulness.

Naruto and Hinata, Ino and Shikamaru, and (surprisingly) Neji and Tenten were dancing on the floor while their teachers, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Shizune were drinking and joking at the tables. Soon, Tsunade stood up and called attention to the rest.

"I believe a toast is in order!" She pulled Sakura to the front and handed her a drink.

"Here here!"

Sakura blushed. "I just wanted to say thanks to everyone..." she looked at all her friends, "Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be missed so much..." Her eyes landed on Sasuke, "Or that I had managed to have such an effect on all of you... You guys really are the best." Sakura smiled and then sat as her friends cheered.

A short while later Sasuke walked up and offered her his hand in a silent plea for her to come with him.

When they finally made it outside Sakura looked to Sasuke.

"What's up?"

"I'm... sorry." His face tinted pink.

"What for?" She was confused.

"For not... for pushing you away, for not telling you..."

"Telling me what?"

"I..I... grrr..." he wanted so bad to pull his hair out. How hard could it be to say 3 words?!

"I love you!"

Finally! He may have shouted a little, he may have startled her, but he had finally said it.

When her shock finally wore off, she smiled.

And then she pulled him in for a kiss.

And this time, they didn't break apart when their friends started whistling.

 **AN: I'm finally done! Please review and let me know what you think!**

 **No flames please! I've only gotten to episode 125, so things are probably a little off.**


End file.
